In some known vehicle body structures, roof side rails extending in a front-rear direction of a vehicle body are provided at upper ends of a left pillar and a right pillar, a roof arch spans between the left and right roof side rails, and the roof side rail and a center pillar are coupled through a gusset.
The gusset is provided on an extended line of the center pillar and has a bead swelling toward a vehicle compartment.
By providing the bead in the gusset, a space is formed downward between the bead and the roof side rail. An engagement projection portion (hereinafter, simply referred to as engagement portion) of a pillar garnish is inserted into this space from a lower direction, whereby the engagement portion is engaged with the bead.
Once the engagement portion is engaged with the bead, the pillar garnish is attached to the center pillar from the vehicle compartment side (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1).
However, when the engagement portion of the pillar garnish is inserted into the space in the vehicle body structure according to Patent Literature 1, the engagement portion can interfere with the roof side rail, which prevents assembling workability of the pillar garnish from being enhanced.
In order to prevent the engagement portion from interfering with the roof side rail, it is considered to provide an opening portion in the roof side rail at a section thereof opposing the gusset (bead).
Here, the gusset is provided on the extended line of the center pillar and thus a relatively heavy load is input to the opposing section in the roof side rail. Therefore, rigidity and strength are particularly required in the opposing section in the roof side rail.
For this reason, in a case where the opening portion is provided in the opposing section in the roof side rail, a measure for ensuring the rigidity and strength of the opposing section in the roof side rail is required. It is thus not desirable to provide the opening portion in the opposing section.